ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A twin explosion targeted Speicher military base in Salahaddin province late on Monday, according to the Iraqi Security Media Cell.
The cell released a statement early Tuesday confirming a double explosion targeted the base on Monday night, which houses units of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), a predominantly Shiite umbrella network of paramilitaries.
No casualties were reported.
“Civil defense teams were able to control the fire caused by these two explosions,” the statement reads.
The source of the explosions is currently unknown.
The blasts at Speicher came hours after three Katyusha rockets landed inside Taji military base, resulting in serious damage to an Iraqi military warplane, according to the media cell.
Located north of Baghdad, Taji hosts US military personnel to advise and train Iraqi troops in the fight against ISIS.
Speicher military base, which is currently named Majid al-Timimi air base, is located in the town of Tikrit town, approximately 170 kilometers north of Baghdad.
The base was the site of a bloody massacre in 2014, when Islamic State (ISIS) militants stormed the site and captured at murdered at least 1,500 cadets – most of whom were Shiite.
This comes after two explosions rocked a weapons depot inside al-Saqr military base in southern Baghdad’s Dora neighborhood on Sunday evening, with no human casualties. The media cell claimed that explosion was caused by “mismanagement of weapons storage and heat” in an official statement on Sunday.
Attacks on US bases have become increasingly common in recent months.
A rocket attack on Taji base in March killed two Americans and one Briton, and the base was among several targeted in rocket attacks by Iran-backed militias following the US assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in January.
Other sites of US interest in Iraq are also prone to strikes, with four rockets landing inside Besmaya military base on Friday, just a day before coalition troops handed over the base to Iraqi Security Forces.
